How Does Barium Get Into an Aquifer During Gas Drilling Operations?

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea answered this question:

Barium occurs naturally in marcellus shale, and is also used in a drilling compound, as barium sulfate.

From either source, it can contaminate an aquifer (underground), while underground, or it can spill on the surface from either source and leach down into the aquifer.

For example, during drilling, the drilling mud containing barium sulfate, is in direct contact with the aquifer, while drilling through it.
If there is a cement failure, flowback fluid containing barium can migrate into the aquifer.

Or, frac fluid containing barium from the formation can migrate upwards through faults, abandoned wells, or the overlying formation.

My comment is this:  Did you ever think about it this way?  As the hole is drilled in the ground on the well pad, the drilling mud is in direct contact with the aquifer.  I think this flies  in the face of industry people who say they are drilling so deep that they never affect the aquifer.  They are drilling right through the aquifer.  What are they talking about?  Before the cement is put in around the well bore,  the aquifer has already been penetrated and disturbed. 

Hydrofracking: Rochester, NY, Forum, October 2011

This is the quick way to look at the Rochester forum held at Temple B'rith Kodesh, October 23, 2011. You can click on selected portions of the forum for easy viewing as time permits. This was an excellent forum, full of information we all need. Time is of the essence, friends. The NY DEC is in the process of deciding our future. Will high-volume, slick water horizontal hydrofracking be allowed in New York State? Permitting may commence as soon as early 2012.

How Hydraulic Fracturing Will Impact Rochester (NY)
Panelists: Anthony Ingraffea, PhD, PE, professor, Cornell University
                 Jannette Barth, PhD, economist
                 Roger Downs, NYS lobbyist for the Sierra Club, Atlantic
                     Chapter

Click here to check it out.

Visit R-CAUSE   (Rochesterians Concerned About Unsafe Shale gas Extraction), organizers of this event.

For help in writing your letter to the NY DEC, click here.  The public comment period has begun and will continue through December 12, 2011.  I am working on my comment, and I encourage everyone to submit something, too.  We are encouraged to address only one issue.  So pick the one you are most concerned about.

Submit your letter to the NY DEC ASAP!

This American Life: Game Changer

This episode of This American Life presents the issues surrounding natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Prologue.

Host Ira Glass tells the stories of two professors, each making a calculation that no one had made before. One gets acclaim. One ends up out of a job. The first, Terry Engelder, a geologist at Penn State, was estimating the amount of natural gas that's recoverable from the Marcellus shale, a giant rock formation that's under Pennsylvania and several other Eastern states. The second, Conrad "Dan" Volz, at the University of Pittsburg, estimated how much toxic crap—chemicals and pollution from gas exploration—might be getting into water supplies. (6 1/2 minutes)

Act One. You've Got Shale.

Producer Sarah Koenig continues the story Terry Engelder and Dan Volz, their rival calculations about natural gas in Pennsylvania, and how each was treated by his university. She explains how Pennsylvania's universities, politicans and industry have united to develop natural gas. Other states have been more cautious. (26 1/2 minutes)

Act Two. Ground War.

Sarah takes us to Mt. Pleasant, PA, where a gas exploration company called Range Resources has leased 95% of the township's land. This led to a standoff between Mt. Pleasant and Range, starting with zoning disputes and ending in a full scale PR war—a war in which the town was seriously outgunned. (23 1/2 minutes)

Professor Ingraffea Lecture: Development of Natural Gas from Shales

Well Head on Well Pad

A presentation by Cornell Professor Dr. Anthony Ingraffea. Dr. Ingraffea's presentation evaluates myth and facts concerning some of the more notable issues involved in development of unconventional natural gas wells in shale formations. The presentation was sponsored by Penn State Eco-Action and the Sierra Club Moshannon Group.

May 10, 2011

Professor Ingraffea addresses myths and realities of slick water, high volume fracturing from long laterals.  The four myths he included were:

1.   Fracking is a 60-year-old well-proven technology.
2.   Gas migration from faulty wells is a rare phenomenon.
3.   Use of multi-well pads reduces surface impact.      
4.   Natural gas is a clean fossil fuel.

All of these statements contain a kernel of truth, according to Ingraffea.  However, he explains why each of these myths is flawed in major ways.  After hearing his talk, one has a better understanding of the real truth.  The problems with these mythic statements are highlighted in detail.  Ingraffea uses data from the gas industry whenever possible to prove his points.  He insists that all statements be backed up by peer-reviewed scientific research.

This video presentation is two hours long.  It took me 4 sittings to get it all.  I took notes!  It is well worth the time if you have the motivation.  I hope you will watch it.

View Dr. Ingraffea's lecture here.

Natural Gas From Fracking Could Be Dirtier Than Coal

I'm hearing a lot of talk lately about natural gas being a great bridge fuel while we figure out what to do next, facing peak oil and what not.  Well, according to a Cornell University study released and published in the May issue of Climatic Change Letters, getting natural gas out of the ground could do more to aggravate global warming than mining coal.  While natural gas has been described as clean-burning and producing less carbon dioxide than coal,  hydrofracking produces dangerous methane which is a much more potent greenhouse gas.  Horizontal gas drilling can account for up to twice the methane emissions than conventional gas drilling.

Robert Howarth, Tony Ingraffea, and Renee Santoro analyzed data from published sources, industry reports, and Powerpoint presentations from the EPA.  The study is the first peer-reviewed paper on methane emissions from shale gas, and one of the few exploring the greenhouse gas footprints of unconventional gas drilling.

Read more here:  LINK

Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Speaks

DEP personnel find methane bubbling in the Susquehanna River at Sugar Run in Bradford County, PA

Kudos to Wes Skillings and The Wyalusing Rocket-Courier (PA) for printing this article about the problems and dangers of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania.  I think it is refreshing to see this information in a newspaper in an area that often promotes gas drilling without providing a balance.

Read what Cornell University professor, Dr. Tony Ingraffea, said about hydrofracking at a recent gathering in Browntown, PA.

...the industry claims a success rate of 98.5%, which is essentially at least one accident waiting to happen for about every 150 wells drilled. That is totally unacceptable from an engineering standpoint.

Do people realize what is happening in an area where drilling is occuring? Dr. Ingraffea told his audience that

...there are all kinds of ways for natural gas to migrate into groundwater acquifers. We're dealing with Mother Nature in a way that we can't see what we're doing, smell what we're doing, hear what we're doing, and we can't taste what we're doing, because it's thousands of feet down there...

He also pointed out a very important fact: Hydraulic fracturing in the unconventional gas drilling being done on the Marcellus is a very specific kind of fracking that had never been done in the Commonwealth of PA before 2004. It had never been done anywhere before 1997.

There is lots more easy-to -understand (the kind I like) information in this article.  We all should read it!  Thanks again to the Rocket-Courier and Mr. Skillings!

Read more...

Dr. Ingraffea: Hydrofracking Part II

Part II of a talk by Dr. Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University, and an expert in hydraulic rock fracturing.  You may be surprised at what he has to say about what is happening in the Marcellus Shale.

Watch Part III of this talk here. Part I is here.

Dr. Ingraffea Teaches the Hydrofracking Basics: Part I

Anthony Ingraffea, PhD, gave a talk in Penn Yan, NY, on March 2, 2010.  Here is Part I of that lecture (running about 8 minutes).  Dr. Ingraffea received his PhD in rock fracture mechanics, a field which is almost unknown today, and few people have this rare degree.  Dr. Ingraffea worked at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, for 33 years, in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.  He did research in hydraulic rock fracture in particular.  He has also served as princial investigator for such organizations as NASA, Kodak, the U. S. Army, IBM, Schlumberger, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Boeing.

In this talk, Dr. Ingraffea focuses on hydrofracking and the Marcellus Shale.  He has a unique way of explaining the process in a very understandable way.  And he highlights the dangers of the process which he has studied and researched for decades.

Watch Part III of this presentation here. Part II is here.